The 20th Anniversary of the Jim McGarvey Public Employee Breakfast

This year, we celebrate a major milestone: the 20^th anniversary of the first Jim McGarvey Public Employee breakfast. This breakfast series was established in 2004 to bring together convention delegates interested in government issues and public employment, highlight speakers who could shed light on the diverse issues facing government employees, and honor Jim McGarvey. Convention attendees can purchase tickets for the 2024 Jim McGarvey Public Employees Breakfast by visiting the Meal Tix site.

The Legacy of Jim McGarvey

Jim McGarvey was a staunch advocate for organizing and built the largest union in the state of Montana. Jim was a powerful voice for public employees in his state and across the country. He was born in Butte, Montana in 1942 and at age 14, while still in school, started working in the coal mines hauling refuse and machinery. There was his first introduction to a union as a member of International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. McGarvey was the first member of his family to graduate college and started teaching at Butte High School becoming president of the Butte Teachers Union, Local 332, before he got tenure.

Six years later, in 1971, McGarvey took the position as executive director of the Montana Federation of Teachers (MFT), the sole employee. He was the organizer, the negotiator, the lobbyist and field representative. With determination and lots of energy McGarvey took the MFT with 3 locals and 500 members to 80 locals and 6000 members, becoming the largest affiliate of the Montana AFL-CIO. Along the way he was elected as a vice president of the AFT executive council, president of the MFT, chair of the public employee committee and later the public employee PPC. He and the late Eric Feaver orchestrated the merger with the MEA to form the MEA-MFT, (now the MFPE) in 2000. Jim subsequently became president and later executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO. Under Jim’s leadership, the organization saw its membership double before he retired in 2011. 

Jim McGarvey always said that the AFT was a family and the only way to grow your family is to organize. If you are in this AFT family or any union, you wake up and ask yourself “How do I grow the union? One more person today.” Jim passed on August 28, 2012, after a lifetime devoted to his friends, his family, and building worker power.

The Jim McGarvey Distinguished Speaker Series

2004 – Roger Benson

2006 – David Sirota

2008 – David Cay Johnston

2010 – Ed McElroy

2012 – David Cay Johnston

2014 – Eric Feaver and David Strom: The Current State of Public Employee Free Speech Rights

2016 – Martha Hamilton, Investigative Journalist: The Panama Papers

2018 – Thomasine Heitkamp: Big Pharma and the Opiate Addiction in Our Communities: Addressing a Public Crisis (with Higher Education division)

2020 – No In-Person Convention

2022 – Christina Colclough, Founder of The Why Not Lab and Amanda Ballantyne, Director of the Tech Institute: Why Unions Matter: Reshaping Digitalization of Public Services